


Time for Reflection

by eriah211



Category: Primeval
Genre: Awkward Conversations, F/M, Feels, Fix-It of Sorts, Locked In, M/M, Oblivious, Season/Series 02, Song Lyrics, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 22:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15253653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eriah211/pseuds/eriah211
Summary: Set in s2. Sometimes people just need some time to think, especially very stubborn people.





	Time for Reflection

**Author's Note:**

> Previously posted on Livejournal. Written for the primeval_denial Secret Santa 2017. Beta by the great goldarrow. All remaining mistakes (and the terrible title) are mine.
> 
> Jon Lyle belongs to fredbassett, who kindly lets me play with him too.
> 
> Written for lukadreaming who gave the following prompts: 1) I don’t care about morals, as the world’s insane and we’re all to blame anyway; b) And I need you more than want you. And I want you for all time; c) There was a time when you let me know, what's really going on below, but now you never show that to me, do you?; d) And in the naked light I saw, ten thousand people, maybe more. I tried to use all of them in the story, not sure I was completely successful, but I tried.

  
“This is beyond ridiculous!” Nick exclaimed, half in anger, half in disbelief. “Open the door immediately!”  
  
On the other side of the lab window, Jenny and Abby looked very much unimpressed by his words.  
  
“We’re very sorry to have to resort to such a childish measure, but given that you both have been behaving like children, we thought it was appropriate,” Jenny replied calmly.  
  
“We’ll let you out once you talk over your issues, like adults,” Abby added, crossing her arms over her chest.  
  
“This is absurd!”  
  
Nick turned to look at the other side of the lab, but found no support from Stephen. The young man looked equally pissed-off by the situation, but he still refused to make eye contact with him.  
  
They had been checking some samples in the lab, avoiding each other as often as possible, and when he had tried to get out of the room, he had realized that the door wouldn’t open. Nick had tried to open it a few times, feeling slightly silly, but in the end, he had given up and used the intercom to call Connor.  
  
Nick had assumed that it was going to be some malfunctioning circuit that the young geek would be able to fix in a minute, but to his surprise, instead of Connor, Jenny and Abby had appeared to let him know that they had locked the room and that he and Stephen would be stuck in there for the time being.  
  
“Look,” Nick tried again, making an effort to sound calm. “It’s been fun and you’ve made your point. Now, open the door, we’ve a lot of work to do.”  
  
“There is indeed a lot of work to do,” Lester agreed as he strolled up from the hall to stand by Jenny’s side. “But it has come to my attention that both of you have been making that work more difficult and dangerous than it needed to be.”  
  
Ryan walked after him and stood on the side, his usually serious face showing just a hint of amusement.  
  
‘Et tu, Brute?’ Nick thought, feeling betrayed.  
  
“Captain Ryan will be in charge of the field missions today,” Lester continued. “Right now, gentlemen, your only task will be to decide if you can still work together or if we’ll have to make some...  adjustments for the good of the ARC project.”  
  
It definitely sounded like a thinly veiled threat to him, but Nick wouldn’t have paid it much attention if he hadn’t seen Jenny and Abby exchange a worried look when they heard Lester’s words. The situation couldn’t have got that bad, couldn’t it?  
  
“I don’t see how this could improve things at all,” Stephen said, finally deciding to take part in the conversation. “I don’t think you have thought things through.”  
  
Lester turned to look at Jenny, who just shrugged her shoulders and simply said “We have nothing to lose.”  
  
“Well, I think that settles it then,” Lester said, looking a bit bored by the whole situation. “And we all have tasks to do, so time to go back to work!” he added, ushering them away.  
  
Abby winked at Nick and then followed Ryan to the menagerie. Jenny started walking away after Lester, but before leaving, she gave Nick a warning look that made him remember how scary that woman could actually be.  
  
“Oh, just one more thing,” Lester added casually, stopping to look back at Nick. “Don’t bother calling for Mr Temple’s help. You won’t bribe or bully him to get you out of there, he’s busy upgrading the ADD and has orders to stay away from both of you.”  
  
Nick glared at him as he walked away. That had been their best option to get out of the lab and the infuriating man had obviously thought of it already. Not that it was going to stop Nick from trying anyway.  
  
Unfortunately, after using the intercom in the room, their phones, and even Stephen’s walkie with no success, it looked like Lester had done a good job of threatening Connor because the young man wasn’t answering any of them.  
  
With a sigh, Nick gave up and accepted that he was going to be stuck in a tiny room with Stephen for god knew how long.  
  
There were probably worst ways to spend the day, Nick thought, like being chased by a prehistoric creature with big teeth, but this wasn’t going to be a very enjoyable one.  


 

\-------------------------------

  
  
They tried to keep themselves busy with any unfinished task they could find inside the lab, probably just so they could ignore each other for a bit longer. After a while, though, Nick ran out of things to do and had to give up and sit on one of the chairs, pretending to read a very long report he had found on a desk.  
  
Stephen, who seemed to be cleaning his tools for the second time in the last hour, still wasn’t talking to him, pointedly ignoring him the whole time.  
The piped music that kept playing softly through the lab speakers was the only sound in the room for quite some time.  


 

_Hello darkness my old friend_

  
Nick grunted as he heard the first words of the song playing through the speakers. It was a depressing song even at the best of times. And that day he wasn’t in the brightest mood at all.

He did understand that he had to talk to Stephen eventually, but it was hard. He just wished he at least knew how to start. ‘You cheating liar’ wasn’t a good opening line, that much he knew. And Stephen hadn’t really ‘cheated’ on him, right? That had been his wife. Nick didn’t know why those words were the first ones that had come to his mind.

Stephen had been a liar, though. Or rather he hadn’t told Nick the truth when he definitely should. A good friend would have said something.

 

_And in the naked light I saw  
Ten thousand people, maybe more_

Nick glanced at Stephen, trying not to stare. The mark of his punch on the tracker’s cheek, though, caught his attention like a neon sign. The light bruise was already fading, but it still made him feel a sharp sting of shame. No matter what Stephen had said that day, he shouldn’t have reacted like that.

_People talking without speaking  
People hearing without listening_

 

Nick knew he could be stubborn and, many would say, self-centred, but even he realized that he owed Stephen an apology for that particularly low moment.  And there was no time like the present, as they said. Especially since there was literally nothing else to do, aside from reading what looked like a painfully boring report so Nick took a deep breath and decided to try.

“I’m very sorry, Stephen,” Nick finally managed to say out loud.

Stephen raised his head with a surprised expression on his face.

“About punching you the other day,” Nick clarified, grimacing. “I was way out of line, I’m so sorry.”

Stephen’s blue eyes pierced through him and for a moment Nick thought he wasn’t going to accept his apology, but then Stephen snorted and lowered his head, looking slightly ashamed.

“I said a very shitty thing myself that day,” he admitted.

_‘_ _No wonder she turned to me.’_ Stephen‘s words had stung badly, that was true.

“There was no excuse to resort to violence just because I was angry, or hurt. Or both,” Nick admitted, painful as it was to do so.

Not good with apologies and not good with feelings either, Nick realized.

“I think they were right,” Nick mused out loud. “We behaved a bit like children.”

“But we aren’t going to admit that to them, are we?” Stephen asked with a hint of a smile on his face.

“Hell, no!”

Stephen chuckled lightly and Nick realized how much he had missed that. He had missed his friend more than he had wanted to admit to himself.

They both went back to their fake tasks after that. Nick turned another page of a report he wasn’t reading and Stephen started polishing a tool that was already shining under the lab lights. Melancholic songs kept playing softly in the lab, making the mood even gloomier.

Nick stared blankly at the written lines and let his mind wander, but as usual lately, his thoughts went back to Helen and the mess she had left behind after their last encounter.

Helen had disappeared years ago, but she had not been the woman he thought she was. Nick had lost and mourned a wife that had never been completely real and now that Helen was back, he had found himself taunted by a woman that he couldn’t really trust.

_There was a time when you let me know  
What's really going on below  
But now you never show that to me, do you?_

 

 

Helen, he knew now, had never really let him see her real self. It had hurt to learn that, but losing his trust in his closest friend at the same time had hurt even more.

It looked like Jenny had been right again when she had told him that he looked angrier at Stephen than at Helen. But he wasn’t going to admit that to her either.

“For what it’s worth, I feel like shit about all this,” Stephen said, out of the blue, still looking down at his tools.

Maybe he wasn’t the only one in the room affected by the melancholic music, Nick thought.

He barely stopped himself from saying ‘Well, you should’ because he had come to understand that he had been a big-headed dickhead for way too long, but not really knowing what to say, he resorted to a grunt as an answer. Not a brilliant reply even for his standards.

Stephen finally looked up to stare at Nick with a cautious look on his face, as if he feared it was going to be the beginning of another fight, but he must have seen something on Nick’s face that calmed his fears because he visibly relaxed, the tension in his shoulders finally disappearing.

Nick knew that the regret and the pain showing in Stephen’s eyes were genuine and he realized that he had never considered how Helen’s actions could have affected Stephen at all. Self-centred, indeed.

“I know,” Nick replied seriously, finally finding the words. “Now I know.”

_I don’t care about morals,_  
_as the world’s insane and_  
_we’re all to blame anyway._

 

Stephen looked so young, Nick thought, staring at him. And he had been much younger when Helen had made him her lover. Just a student, eager and fairly naive, as they usually were at that age. Nick cringed at the thought. Teacher-student affairs were prohibited for a very good reason, but University regulations had never mattered much to Helen and as it seemed, morals hadn’t mattered at all.

“I was a coward, you know?” Stephen said, breaking Nick’s depressing line of thoughts. “I wasn’t trying to fool you, I was just... I just didn’t want to...” he faltered, looking frustrated. “I guess... I was too afraid to lose you. But I should have said something.”

Stephen’s blue eyes looked straight at him, raw and honest, and Nick found himself at a loss for words again.

“I made a big mistake eight years ago,” he added. “And I’m terribly sorry, Nick.”

Nick was touched by Stephen’s admission and he wanted to say something that would make it right between them, but somehow, what came out when he opened his mouth was something a bit different.

“You didn’t want to lose me?” he said, his brain focussing on that part of Stephen’s words. “Do you mean... your job?”

“What? No! I... I just hoped you would finally say yes...”Stephen replied, looking suddenly embarrassed.

“Yes to what?”

Stephen blinked, looking puzzled. Then he furrowed his brow and eyed Nick suspiciously.

“I know you are a bit of an absent-minded professor sometimes, Nick, but surely you noticed it when I asked you out last Christmas, did you?” he asked.

It was Nick’s time to feel confused as hell.

“You mean when you invited the team for New Year’s Eve at your home?” he asked, bewildered.

“No, it’s when I invited _you_ to dinner and the whole team showed up for a party,” Stephen replied, eyes wide open.

Nick sort of remembered Stephen saying something about having dinner at his place, but surely he had said that to the whole team, right?

Stephen groaned and rubbed his face in frustration.

“You know, I kept wondering if all of them showing up had been a mistake or if you were trying to turn me down politely,” he said. “I hoped I still had a chance...”

Nick then remembered asking a surprised Connor if he was going to go to Stephen’s party. The young geek had probably spread the word, and rather effectively, because not only Connor, Abby, Jenny and Lorraine had showed up, also most of the SF that were out of duty that night.

“Oh,” Nick said, grimacing. “Sorry about that.”

“I had to run to my neighbour’s flat to ask for some food and drinks,” Stephen said, barely keeping a straight face. “I wasn’t planning on feeding a dozen guests that night. Fortunately there was enough booze to keep the soldiers happy.”

Nick covered his eyes in shame.

“It wasn’t that bad, man,” Stephen added, taking pity on him. “But it wasn’t the night I had planned.”

There had been times when Nick had thought that Stephen might feel that way about him, but he had quickly dismissed that idea, blaming loneliness for the thought and thinking that surely Stephen was just being friendly. Even if that had looked like the sensible stance at the time, deep down he knew it had been just cowardice.

Nick sighed and looked thoughtfully at him. Stephen’s eyes were warm and bright and Nick couldn’t believe it had taken him so long to get to this point.

 

_And I need you more than want you_  
_And I want you for all time._

 

“So, you and me?” he asked, probably more to himself than anything.

And he immediately realized that his own answer would be yes, hell yes, and loneliness had nothing to do with it.

“I’ve wanted it for a long time,” Stephen said, his face turning serious again. “But I could understand it if now, after Helen... you wouldn’t want me around.”

There it was, the regret and the hurt in Stephen’s eyes again and Nick didn’t like it at all.

“I’m not letting Helen ruin my life more than she already has,” he replied. “And neither should you.”

Because letting this chance slip by definitely felt like the biggest mistake he could make and he was sure he didn’t want to push Stephen away, not because of Helen and not because of anybody.

A hopeful look appeared on Stephen’s face and Nick thought he could do better.

“I think I owe you a dinner,” he said with an apologetic smile. “And I promise you it will be just the two of us, if you want to.”

Stephen smiled back at him and nodded.

“We can continue this conversation then,” Stephen added, smiling.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Nick agreed. They still had a few things to talk about if they wanted to leave it all behind. “Right now, though, I think we should find a way to get out of here. Any way. Hell knows when they are planning on coming back and let us out.”

“Do you want to try calling Connor again?” Stephen asked, amused.

“I was in fact wondering if the fire protection system in the ARC is good,” Nick replied, grinning.

“I think it’s actually very good,” Stephen said. “But we should check it. For safety reasons, obviously.”

“Obviously,” Nick agreed, nodding seriously. “Safety is a very important matter. Do you have a lighter around here?”

\-------------------------------

Lester rested his back against the chair and sighed.

“Well, who would have guessed it? It actually worked,” he said, still looking at the monitor. “I’ll let Abby and Jenny know that their idea, although preposterous, has been successful.”

“Have you been checking the CCTV in the lab the whole time?” Lyle asked him, dropping unceremoniously onto the opposite chair. “You don’t get to call me gossipmonger any more, honey bunny.”

“I wasn’t gossiping, dear snookums. I was simply making sure Cutter didn’t murder Stephen during working hours,” Lester said, glaring at him, offended.

“Awww, I knew you cared,” Lyle teased him. “Have they already kissed and made up?”

“Figuratively speaking, it looks like it, yes,” Lester answered. “Literally? Not yet, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to take them long.”

“Maybe if you keep them locked there a bit longer...” Lyle suggested. “I could still win the pool.”

“I really think it’s time to let them out before they set the whole ARC on fire,” Lester replied, standing up and turning off the monitor.

“That would be an interesting story to tell to the Risk Prevention Department,” Lyle said as he stood up and walked towards Lester.

“Your definition of interesting never ceases to amaze me, sweet pea,” Lester replied, adjusting his tie. “But still, I would rather avoid the paperwork.”

Lyle grinned widely and grabbed the expensive tie to drag Lester towards him for a kiss. Their lips had barely touched when the fire alarm started blaring.

 

END

**Author's Note:**

> Lyrics:  
> 1) I don’t care about morals, as the world’s insane and we’re all to blame anyway (The Butterfly Collector by The Jam). 
> 
> b) And I need you more than want you. And I want you for all time (Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell).
> 
> c) There was a time when you let me know, what's really going on below, but now you never show that to me, do you? (Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen).
> 
> d) And in the naked light I saw, ten thousand people, maybe more (The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel).


End file.
